Not So Innocent
by skipoverthemiddle
Summary: Set after Nick and Nora/Sid and Nancy. Rory's in trouble, and Jess is the only one who can help her. Lit.
1. Chapter 1

**EDIT- IMPORTANT NOTE: I started writing this story when I was thirteen. I am now twenty. I promise you, the horrendous writing of the first few chapters gets better, so please stick with it.**

A/n Okay this is sorta like Buffy the vampire slayer, except it has nothing to do with Buffy the vampire slayer. It just…well, you'll see.

Chapter 1

He watched her walk away, a smirk on his face. He'd never met a girl like her before. A girl who knew things. She was smart. Really smart. And special. He knew he was going to have to be careful with her. Really careful.

He was about to turn away when he saw a pair of yellow eyes from behind a tree Rory was about to pass. He shook his head, not believing it for a second. Not here. There was no way. This place was too… fairy tale-ish to have problems like this. And yet, the eyes were there, following the girl he had just met.

He looked around. There was no living person that he could see in this part of the town. He called Rory's name, confidant that he could deal with it if they were followed, as he thought there was only one. She turned, a look of confusion on her face.

"Yeah?"

He ran to her, his eyes on the other, topaz pair. He grabbed onto her arm, then quickly let go, realizing that she would think it weird that he was touching her.

"Uhm," he said, walking backwards, away from the tree, so she would follow, "I was wondering if you wanted some coffee. I'm going back to the diner so I just thought you might like to come with me. Coffee's free." He added as an afterthought. She smiled.

"I'd love some free coffee." He could feel the eyes following them as they walked. He had to get her away from here.

"Okay, great. Lets go then." and he grabbed her arm, not caring about touching her anymore, and practically dragged her toward the diner.

"Whoa, jess, I can walk on my own. I've been doing it for almost 16 years." he heard footsteps behind them and quickened their pace.

"Uh, yeah…but we have to get there before Luke locks me out."

"Okay…?" he heard more footsteps join the ones that were already following them and chanced a glace behind him. His eyes widened as he saw at least 20 people, all with yellow eyes and scrunched up noses, following them.

"Shit."

"What?" Rory said, trying to look behind her.

"Run!" and he started running, dragging Rory along.

"Jess, what the hell-" her eyes widened as she finally saw what Jess was running from and sprinted forward. They heard the footsteps behind them start to quicken and they ran faster. The diner was in view now. Rory was starting to fall behind, so Jess grabbed her arm and was half dragging her again.

They reached the door and Jess pushed it open, shoving Rory inside before he got inside himself. They were both panting, but Rory was still running. She was heading toward the stairs, but when she realized Jess wasn't behind her she stopped and turned around.

"Jess, come on. They're going to come inside." Jess shook his head.

"They can't." Rory gave him a confused look. He sighed.

"They can't come in here unless they're invited." He said. Rory blinked. She took a deep breath before asking a question she wasn't too sure she wanted to know the answer to.

"Jess, what exactly are those things?" he sat down in a chair and put his face in his hands.

"Manmies" he said through his hands. Rory sat down next to him.

"What?"

"Vampires." Rory's eyes widened and she bit her lip.

"No, Jess, there's no such thing as Vampires." She said, backing up as what she thought were ugly people pressed their faces against the glass of the diner, unable to enter.

"Yes, there is." He said calmly. She shook her head.

"But…no…I don't understand!" he sighed.

"Neither do I."

"I don't think we don't understand the same thing." He shook his head.

"No, we don't. You don't understand the existence of vampires. I don't understand why there were so many." She was taken aback by this.

"What do you mean you don't understand why there were so many? Who cares how many there are! Those things-"

"Vampires." She glared at him.

"Those things were trying to kill us!"

"They're Vampires, and they weren't trying to kill us. They were trying to kill you." She looked at him, eyes big and terrified.

"B-but… why would they want to kill me? I haven't done anything. I don't even believe in…"

"Vampires?" She sighed.

"This is all just…ugh! Where's Luke? And all the costumers?" she said, noticing for the first time that the diner was completely deserted. Apparently Jess just noticed, too, because he was looking suspiciously at disturbing faces in the windows.

"I don't know. The door was open, though." He said. He tilted his head to the side. "Do you even remember seeing anyone in any of the buildings on our way here?" Rory thought for a second.

"No. But we weren't exactly in a position to be looking through the buildings. And besides, I was just at the store. Remember? I had to get something for school… which I guess I dropped sometime when we were running because I don't have it anymore." Jess ignored the last part of what Rory said. He had just been at the diner, too. They had to have done something. But he doesn't understand why, or why there were so many. For the first time since they got into the diner, he looked into her eyes. They were filled with fear. He swallowed.

"Rory," he stood up, "promise not to freak out when I tell you this?" she nodded looking scared.

"Okay, someone's…after you." She rolled her eyes.

"Yeah I got that part. Except it's more like 20 someones." Jess shook his head.

"No, you don't understand. Those guys were sent." Rory narrowed her eyes.

"Sent by who?"

"I don't know. But obviously there's something about you that no one knows about."

"No, there's not! There's nothing about me! I'm completely normal an-" she got cut off by the sound of a plant flying through the diner's window. Rory screamed as more objects got chucked through the windows. Jess was standing now, looking annoyed.

"What do we do?" Rory asked him.

"They still can't come in. But we can't stay here. Come on. We have to pack some stuff.

A/n that's chapter one. What do you think? I hope u enjoy it.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 

Rory followed him upstairs, a confused look on her face.

"What do you mean 'we have to pack some stuff'? Why do we have to pack some stuff? What kind of stuff do we have to pack?" she was flustered and scared and confused. All she wanted to do was go home and forget about all of this, but something told her she couldn't do that.

"Just stuff that we're going to need when we leave." Jess said. Rory blinked at him.

"You mean when we leave the diner?" she asked. Jess looked at her with, for the first time, surprise on his face.

"Rory, someone's after you. You can't stay in Star's hollow. We have to go somewhere where-"

"No!" Rory said.

"Rory-"

"No! I can't just leave. What about my mom? What about school? What about Dean?"

"Dean?" Jess asked.

"My boyfriend." Rory said, annoyed.

"Oh."

"Jess, I can't leave. My mom will go insane. She's probably already worried I'm not home yet." She said, but Jess shook his head.

"I highly doubt that." he said. Rory looked at him disbelievingly.

"And why's that?" she asked. He sighed.

"Didn't we just cover this downstairs? Where do you think Luke is? Or all the costumers that eat dinner in the diner? Or any of the other town members?" he said. He grabbed his green duffle bag and started throwing clothes in it.

"I-I don't know… what does that have to do with my mom?" Rory asked. Jess rolled his eyes.

"It has to do with your mom because if the rest of the town disappeared then she did too." He said. Rory shook her head. She sat down on Luke's bed and stared at Jess.

"Jess, the town didn't disappear…people don't just disappear. And my mom didn't disappear either." She said. Jess just shook his head, still throwing things in his bag.

"Yeah, keep telling yourself that." Rory glared at him.

"Okay fine, let's just say that I actually believed the town disappeared. Then wouldn't it be wiser to stay here so we could figure out how to get everyone back?"

"No, because they won't come back until those vampires get what they wanted."

"And how do you know they want me? How do you know they aren't after you? You're still here too, you know. And why is that, anyway? If you're so sure they're after me then why aren't u gone like the rest of the town?" she crossed her arms over her chest and looked at him expectantly. But to her disappointment, he didn't even look up.

"They're after you, not me. Trust me. And as for me still being here, I think they thought you would be alone. They weren't expecting me to be with you and they needed to catch you off guard and me disappearing right in front of you would make you a little suspicious that something's going on. So I had to stay."

Rory stared at him, mouth slightly ajar. She was completely lost.

"How the hell do you know all this? How do you even know that vampires exist? Why- what is that!" she exclaimed suddenly, shooting off the bed and backing away. Jess had just taken something out of a loose floorboard in the closet. Something shiny, sharp, and knife-like. Jess sighed for what seemed like the hundredth time that night.

"It's a dagger, and I'm not going to kill you, so chill out. I'm the one protecting you remember?" he reached his hand into the floorboard again and pulled out a black cover that he slipped over the dagger before putting it in a separate, black duffle bag. Rory watched him do this many times, but every time the item he pulled out of the floor was different. Rory watched as several wooden stakes, a few bottles of holy water, a small axe, and (to Rory's bewilderment) a sword disappeared into the black duffle bag. It was a few minutes until she spoke again.

"What's all that stuff for?" she asked softly.

"Fighting." Jess said simply. He went over to a window and opened it. Then he turned to Rory.

"Ready?" he asked. She gave him a puzzled look.

"For what?" she asked.

"To leave." He said. Rory let out a small moan.

"Jess, I'm not leaving with you. I don't even know you!" she said, not understanding why he's not getting this.

"Well, don't I look trustworthy?" he asked innocently. She glared at him.

"Okay, not fair. That was a totally different situation. All I wanted you to do was eat dinner. You're trying to make me leave my town." She crossed her arms over her chest again. He sighed and walked over to her.

"Listen, I know this is hard for you, but if you want your mom to be able to come back home, we have to leave." He said. She looked at him fearfully.

"I thought you said the only way for the town to come back was for those things to get what they want." She said, stepping back.

"I didn't say that was the only way. The town'll come back when the vampires realize they failed. But they can't fail unless we leave. So…you coming?" he said, walking backwards towards the window. Rory sighed.

"Will you tell me how you know all this stuff?" she asked him. He smirked.

"Promise." He said.

"I don't have any clothes or anything…"

"We'll stop at your house. But quickly and we have to be quiet. Especially when we're climbing out the window-"

"I never said I was going." She said, not letting him finish. He just looked at her and she sighed.

"Fine, but you're going first." He smirked.

"Fair enough." He said, and they made their way to the window.

A/n okay that's chapter 2. sorry if jess is kinda out of character but, well…too bad.

**Buffy-gilmore-fan13-** yeah I know I've read it. It's really good. You haven't updated it in awhile though…unless you did and I just don't know about it. Well thank for your review


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3 

Rory clutched her side, breathing heavily. She'd never run that fast in her entire life.

"Oh my God." She said, banging her head against the door. Jess just shook his head.

"It's your own fault." He said, walking towards her bedroom. She followed him, a hand still on her side.

"Excuse me, how is it my fault?" she asked. Jess put his duffle bags down and turned to her.

"I told you to be quiet." He said.

"I was quiet!" she said defensively. He just looked at her.

"What? I was." She said.

"You screamed." He said. She rolled her eyes.

"Well excuse me for being a tad bit scared about almost falling off a stack trashcans outside a second story window." She said. She walked over to her closet and started looking for her duffle bag.

"Do you honestly think I would have let you fall?" Jess asked her. She shrugged and pulled her bag out from under a pile of shoeboxes.

"Well, I wouldn't have. Now hurry up. It's a small town, and we just lost them. It won't be long until they find us." He said. He looked around her room. He hadn't noticed her Harvard board the last time he was here. He frowned a little, wondering if she would be alive by the time college came.

"I'm not allowed to bring books, am I?" she asked abruptly, turning around to face him. He blinked at her, repeating what she said in his mind a few times until he processed it. He sighed. Having a few books around would be nice, but books are heavy. And they have to travel light.

"You can bring a couple. But they have to be skinny and paperback." He said. She smiled and pulled _Howl_ out of her back pocket. She'd put it there before this whole vampire thing started.

"Okay." She said, and opened some drawers in her dresser. Jess shook his head at how many books she had stored in there. She really was an unusual girl.

"Hey, can I ask you a question?" she asked him, still sorting through her books.

"Sure, but I can't guarantee an answer." He said.

"Okay. Where are we going?" she asked him. He didn't answer for a minute. Did he really want to go back? He just got away. And after all, there were millions of places where they could hide, where no one would ever find them. But he knew that if he really wanted Rory to be safe, which he did, a little more than he should, he'd have to go back. She'd be well protected there. And he wouldn't really be going back to that life. Not permanently, anyway.

"New York." He said. Rory stopped packing and turned around.

"Really?" she asked surprised.

"Really." He said. She tilted her head, thinking.

"Why New York?" she asked. He shrugged.

"Why not New York?" Rory walked over to her bed and sat down.

"That's not very far." She said.

"Its far enough." Jess said. He glanced out the window, making sure no one was outside. Then he looked back at Rory. "C'mon. You have to finish packing." He said, but she didn't make any move to get up.

"Rory. " but she still didn't move. He sighed and went to go sit next to her. She looked up at him.

"This is why you were sent here, isn't it? This isn't weird for you at all. You're used to all this." she said. He didn't look at her. He kept his eyes on her closet.

"Would you like me to finish packing for you? Because, incase I didn't all ready inform you, we have to hurry up." He said, standing up. She sighed.

"You're not going to answer, are you?" she asked. He walked over to her dresser and picked up a small pile of books she had put there.

"Are these the only books you want to take with us?" he asked her. She rolled her eyes and got off the bed.

"Fine. I can pack myself." She said, taking the books from him and shoving them in the bag that was now full of clothes. Jess let her pack and went to go look out the window. There was still no one there.

He hadn't the slightest idea how they were gong to get to New York. They could take a bus, but it's late and the next bus out of Stars Hollow wouldn't come until morning. Rory wouldn't go for taking Lorelai's jeep, seeing as she would need it when the town came back. And they couldn't risk going back to Luke's. They'd have to hitchhike. Jess was about to run this idea by Rory when he noticed a tall figure walking towards the house. He spun around and went to turn off the light.

"Jess, what are you doing?" Rory exclaimed.

"They're coming. Grab your bag." He said. Rory's eyes widened in fear and she obediently picked up her duffle bag. She zipped it and flung it over her shoulder before feeling her way to her bedroom door. Jess grabbed her arm and pulled her into the pitch-black kitchen.

"Do you still have a cramp?" he asked quietly. She shook her head.

"No." she said. They made there way towards the back door and Jess quietly pushed it open.

"Good. On the count of three, we're going to run, okay?" he whispered. She nodded again.

"One…two…three." And they ran. They ran through the trees that passed as the backyard, their bags bouncing on their backs. They heard running behind them, but they had a good head start. They'd lose them again.

They made it into the street and ran in the general direction of the Welcome to Star's Hollow sign. But all of a sudden there were people behind them. Rory let out a small scream and Jess grabbed her so she wouldn't fall behind.

"How did they catch up to us so fast?" she shouted.

"I don't know. They must have split up." Jess said. They ran faster, and Rory started to turn left.

"What are you doing?" Jess yelled, but Rory freed her arm from his grip and grabbed his.

"This way." She said, pulling him through a bunch of bushes. They heard the vampires tripping over each other trying to get through. Rory kept running, knowing they couldn't see them. She turned right into more bushes, then left, then right again. And then they were in a bush-less clearing. She stopped running and collapsed on the ground. Jess looked at her, willing her to get up.

"Rory, come on." but she shook her head.

"They won't find us for at least a couple minutes. This is a confusing place." She said, panting. Jess looked around.

"What is this place?" he asked her. There was a pile of boxes up farther and a beat up old clothe on the ground.

"It used to be mine and Lanes club house." Rory said, sitting up.

"Where's the clubhouse?" Jess asked.

"That was where the boxes came in." Rory said.

"Ah." Jess said.

"This is pretty much a shortcut out of town. If we go through there," Rory said, pointing at more bushes and trees on the opposite side of the clearing, " we'll be standing in front of the welcome sign." Jess looked at her.

"Smart thinking." He said. He was wondering why she didn't seem scared anymore. She was almost calm. But he didn't have time to find out what's behind her change of attitude. They had to move.

"C'mon." he said, offering his hand to her. She grabbed it and he pulled her up. They started toward the bushes and trees, but stopped when they heard rustling. They were still a good distance away from them, but they had to leave now. Rory and Jess looked at each other before silently running through the trees, for what seemed like the thousandth time that night.

Just as Rory had said, they came out facing the Welcome to Stars Hollow sign. Rory followed as Jess started running left, but they both stopped when they heard a car. Jess put his hand out and stuck his thumb up. The car slowed and came to a stop in front of them. Jess gave a relieved sigh and walk up to the passenger side while the person sitting there rolled down the window. An old women sat there, next to a middle aged man who didn't look too happy to be stopped.

"Where are you kids headed?" the old women asked kindly.

"New York" Jess answered quickly. The old women smiled.

"We can take you there." She said.

"No, we can't!" the man next to her chimed in quickly. The old women rolled her eyes.

"Oh Robert, give the kids a break. That poor girl looks frightened to death. Don't worry, dear. I'm the same way. Can't stand to be out at night." She said. Jess glanced at Rory. She did look pretty shaken up. He nudged her with his elbow and gave her a look. She shook her head, telling him that it was nothing. He didn't believe her but turned back to the car. The old women and the man, Robert, seemed to be fighting.

"I'm not giving these teenagers a lift to New York. They could be runaways. Criminals, even." Robert said. The old women shook her head.

Oh Robert, you-"

"Excuse me." Jess said loudly. The two looked at him.

"We're kind of in a hurry, so if you could just make up your mind…" he said. The old women smiled and started to say something, but Robert cut her off.

"Why do you want to go to New York?" he asked suspiciously. Jess, thinking quickly, put his arm around Rory's waist. She tensed and looked at him.

"We live there. We were just here for a family reunion, but we got into a fight with my parents when they found out we were married," Rory's eyes widened and she opened her mouth to say something but Jess stepped on her foot and she closed her mouth, "and they wouldn't take us back."

Robert narrowed his eyes but the old women gasped.

"You poor kids. You're young and in love, you shouldn't be punished for that." she said.

"That's exactly my point of view." Jess said, smirking a little.

"Of course we'll give you a ride." She said.

"Gladice…" Robert said warningly. She rolled her eyes.

"Hush, Robert." She said.

"Thank you." Jess said, letting go of Rory's waist and opening the door to the backseat. Rory felt weird without his arm there. She wanted it back, but she pushed that feeling away and looked at Jess.

"We can't hitchhike!" she whispered. Jess sighed.

"Rory-"

"No, I'm drawing the line." She said. Jess just gave her a look, and at that exact moment they heard the rustle of trees from somewhere behind them. Her eyes widened.

"Never mind." She said before climbing into the car. Jess shook his head before climbing in after her, and, after receiving a dirty look from Robert, they were off, leaving the vampires behind them.

A/N heyy… sorry this chapters kinda boring. But I wanted to update this.

**Sarah-**haha okay sarah. Well, I don't think its scary… but its u so u get scrred of things that rnt scary and then rnt scared of things that r scary. Well… I miss u! yes I know random but school starts next Tuesday and we wont be going to the same one! Its sad! Well..ttyl 3


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4 

They sat in the car, Jess answering all Gladice's questions. Rory wasn't in a particularly chatty mood tonight. Jess kept one eye on her at all times, wondering how long it would take for her to break down. He didn't have to wait very long, it turned out. Gladice had been talking about her family, whom Robert is not a part of, by the way, when he heard a small sniffle coming from Rory. Robert and Gladice hadn't noticed. Jess turned fully to Rory ad watched her pull her legs in and hug her knees. He sighed. He hadn't the slightest idea how to comfort her, but he knew that she would start crying eventually. She was in a car now, driving away from what's after her, and she's left with her thoughts. It wasn't real to her before. She was going through it, but it didn't seem real. He knew this from experience. But now she has the chance to think about it, and its overwhelming her. The idea of dying has probably just entered her mind. He frowned and put a hand on her shoulder. She jumped slightly, but didn't pull away.

"Rory." She turned to him, and he saw her tear stained face, and it broke him. He took his seatbelt off and slid closer to her. She just watched, not really registering what he was doing, as he slowly wrapped his arms around her. Gladice had stopped talking and was now looking at the two with sad eyes.

"Don't worry, dear. I'm sure if you just explain to your family that you were in love and couldn't wait another minute to spend the rest of your lives together, they'll understand…"

Rory buried her face into Jess's shirt so Gladice wouldn't be able to see it, and she clung on to him. He looked over his shoulder at Gladice, who gave him a sympathetic look.

"Is she going to be alright?" she asked. Jess looked down at the limp girl in his arms, and right then and there he vowed that he wouldn't let anything happen to her. He couldn't explain it, it was just this feeling… she was important. And not just for whatever reason those vampires think, either.

"She'll be fine." he said, hugging her tighter.

-----------------

They were about a half hour away now, and Rory had fallen asleep in Jess's arms. Robert had taken this opportunity to interrogate Jess.

"So you two live together in New York? You have an apartment just for the two of you?" he asked. He was still suspicious, and he wouldn't stop asking pointless question, even with Gladice shushing him every two seconds.

"Yes." Jess said shortly. He was starting to get annoyed. Of all the people who they could have hitched a ride with… he sighed.

"Are you two planning on having any kids? Because you are still miners. You'd have to get a job to support the family." Robert said, not bothering to whisper. That was the thing that was ticking Jess off the most. He didn't want Rory to wake up. He was comfortable with her on top of him.

"I don't know." He said through clenched teeth. If he weren't currently holding on to the beautiful girl that was in his arms, he would have punched Robert in the face. He didn't care that he was driving. It would have been worth it just to have him shut up.

"What about school? You're still in high school. You can't be considering dropping out, can you? You'll never be able to support a family without a high school diploma. And what about-"

"Do you think you could possibly shut up? You're going to wake her up, and I don't think you want to see my reaction if that happens." Jess said quietly, but forcefully. Robert glared, then coughed and turned his attention to the road.

"Next time you want to pick up hitchhikers, too bad." He mumbled to Gladice, who just shook her head and watched with a smile on her face as Jess stroked Rory's hair.

A little while later, Jess had almost fallen asleep when Rory's eyes suddenly shot open and she sprung out of Jess's grip. She crawled as far away from him as she possible could in the small backseat of the car. Jess, surprised by the sudden lack of Rory in his arms, looked at her, concerned.

"Rory…" She squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head frantically. Jess didn't know what to do. He hesitantly put a hand on her shoulder, but she jumped and shoved it off. Robert pulled the car over and looked back at them.

"You better control that wife of yours before we kick you out." He said. Gladice swatted him on the arm before looking back herself.

"Don't worry dear. It was just a bad dream, I'm sure. You're safe here."

But Rory wasn't listening. She turned around and tried to open the door, but Jess was quick and grabbed her arm to pull he rover to him.

"Let go of me!" she yelled, trying to get out of his grip.

"Rory, calm down! It's me. I'm not going to hurt you." She just shook her head and continued fighting him.

"Rory, stop! What's wrong?" he turned her around and looked into her eyes. She stopped trying to jerk away from him and looked back. He gave her a sad look.

"What happened?" he asked softly. They didn't take their eyes away from each other. They didn't even blink.

"I… I had a dream. A really, really bad dream that didn't feel like a dream." Jess looked at her. That wasn't good. That was the complete opposite of good.

"Involving…?" he asked her.

"You." She said. She looked down at his arms encircled around her body, but he didn't notice.

"Me in what way?" he asked. She looked back up at him.

"A bad way." She said. He sighed.

"But it was different." She said. "Your eyes, they were… different. They weren't your eyes." He looked at her strangely.

"So it wasn't me?" he asked. She shook her head.

"No, it _was_ you. But you had someone else's eyes."

"Or maybe it wasn't me, it was whoever's eyes you saw, and they just looked like me. " he said. Rory gave him a look.

"What do you mean?" she asked. Jess glanced at Robert and Gladice, who were listening to everything they said. He sighed.

"I'll explain later." He said.

"But-"

"Rory." She sighed.

"Fine." she said, pulling away from him and hugging her knees to her chest. He frowned a little before turning to Robert and Gladice.

"Sorry." He said. Robert glared at him, but Gladice gave him a sad look.

"Its fine, dear. Really." She said, then, turning to Rory, "are you alright, darling?" she asked. Rory looked at her.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry about that." She said. Gladice waved a hand in the air.

"Don't worry about it. As long as you're all right." She said.

"I am."

"Well, good. Shall we continue on our way, then?" Gladice asked. Rory nodded.

"Great. Come on Robert. Pip pip. We haven't got all night." Robert glared at her before starting the car and continuing on their way.

A/n okay short pointless chapter, I know. Sorry. But at least I updated. I hope you enjoy this chapter… and just so you all know, I have no idea where I'm going with this. So suggestions are welcome. Well… review )

**Watergurl123-** uhm.. its not a buffy/Gilmore. I'm not quite sure what it is, if you couldn't already tell. But thanks for your review.

**Sarah-** yeah u totally forgot what u had to tell me. oh well. But I miss you! And I also cant wait til we're in the same school again.. in '09. well thanks for ur review. Love you!


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5 

"Thanks so much." Rory said as her and Jess made their way out of the car. They were in the middle of the city, and Rory was _not_ in a very good mood.

"Oh, no problem dear. It was our pleasure." Robert grunted at this. "I hope you feel better, and don't worry. I'm sure your family will come around." Rory tried to smile at Gladice.

"Thanks." She said.

"Yeah, thanks." Jess piped in. Gladice smiled at the two of them, like they were the cutest thing in the world, and then Robert stepped on the accelerator and they were gone.

"Okay, explain." Rory said as soon as the car was out of sight. Jess sighed.

"I will. Just not yet." He said. Rory groaned.

"When then?"

"When we get to where we're going."

"And where would that be?" Rory asked irritably. She was crabby and she didn't feel like being where she was at the moment.

"You'll see. Come on." He started walking. Rory stood there for a second before she sighed and followed him.

"We don't have to walk far, do we? Because I don't think I could make it past this block."

Jess shook his head. "Its two blocks away. You can make it." He ignored the loud moan that came out of Rory's mouth.

"Its dark." Rory said.

"Its night." Jess said.

"Yeah, but its scary. We should have brought a flashlight."

"We'll be fine." Jess said. They were quiet for a minute, and then Jess spoke.

"So, Dean huh?" Rory looked at him.

"Yeah, what about him?" Jess shrugged.

"Just curious. So how long have you two been together?" he asked.

"About a year." Rory said. Jess nodded.

"Do you love him?" he asked her. She looked at him. "Sorry, too personal?" Jess asked. Rory shook her head.

"No, its okay," she said, stopping a moment, "um, yeah. I do." Jess looked down at her.

"What?" she asked, when he didn't look away. He shrugged.

"Nothing, just… you hesitated."

"What? No I didn't."

"Yes you did."

"I did not hesitate, and I would greatly appreciate a subject change if you don't mind." Rory said, looking away from Jess.

"Fine. Here." Jess said, rummaging through the black duffel bag. He pulled out a wooden stake and handed it to her. She stared at it.

"What am I supposed to do with that?" she asked him.

"Vampire comes, you stick the pointy end into its heart, it turns to dust, we don't die." She took it, hesitantly.

"I really have to kill these things?" Rory asked him.

"If you want to live." He said. She sighed.

"This has been the most complicated night of my life." She said. Jess looked up and stopped walking.

"Its about to get more complicated." He said. She looked up at him.

"Why?" she asked. He nodded in front of him. She followed his gaze with her eyes. She jumped back a little in surprise.

"No way." She said as a particularly big looking vampire slowly made its way over to them.

"Fight." Jess said. Rory's head snapped up to look at him.

"Excuse me?"

"Fight." He repeated. Rory gave him a petrified look.

"No. Lets run." She said.

"He's right in front of where we're trying to get to. Just fight. I'm here. I'll help you." Rory just looked at him, scared. She gulped very loudly before turning to the vampire. She let out a high-pitched scream and ducked.

"Oh my God." She yelled as she ducked another blow.

"Fight, Rory!" Jess yelled to her.

"I don't know how!" she said, backing into Jess.

"Ro-RORY!" Jess yelled as she got whacked in the face. She fell to the ground, dropping her stake as she went. Jess picked up her stake and turned to the vampire. It tried to punch him, but he blocked it and shoved the stake into its chest. It turned to dust. Jess knelt down next to Rory.

"Are you okay?" he asked her. She nodded, sitting up.

"Yeah, I'm alright. Thanks." She added as he grabbed her hand and pulled her up.

"No problem. We need to work on that." He said. Rory glared at him.

"I hate this. God, I hate this!" she exclaimed angrily. Jess sighed and grabbed her hand.

"I know. And I'm sorry. But it'll get better, I promise. I'm not going to let anything happen to you." He said sincerely. Rory looked down at her hand inside his. It was weird. It fit perfectly. She looked back up at him and he let go of her hand, as if suddenly realizing it wasn't his to hold.

"Um, thanks." Rory said awkwardly. He gave a small nod and started walking again.

Ten minutes later, they were standing outside a very big, very old looking abandoned high school. Or at least, it looked abandoned to Rory. All the windows were boarded up and it looked like no one had been inside in around 50 years. She turned to Jess.

"_This_ is our final destination?" she asked, a little freaked out. She got mad, however, when Jess just laughed at her. "What?" she asked in annoyance. He just smirked at her.

"Listen to you." He said. She pouted.

"Listen to me what?"

"'Our final destination?'" Rory glared at him.

"Shut up." She said. Jess shook his head in amusement.

"Come on." He said, pulling a key out of his pocket and unlocking the door. Rory gave him a weird look when he did that, but he didn't notice. She followed him inside, and was surprised at the interior of the building. It was nothing like the outside. It looked like a secret headquarters of some type. She moved more inside while Jess locked the door again. There were laptops and piles of old books everywhere, and there were some weapons hung against a few walls. Rory turned to Jess again.

"This is so cool!" she said happily. He smirked.

"Not bad for our final destination, huh?" he said. Rory smiled and shook her head.

"Nope."

"We have to be quiet, though. I mean, they're probably not asleep, but-"

"Yeah, right. Asleep? C'mon lil bro, you know us better than that."

A/N- okay,, I'm really sorry I haven't updated in awhile. But I am now. I hope you like this chapter.. even though its kinda bad.

**Purpleribbions-** no, I don't watch supernatural. I saw one episode and it scared the hell out of me. soo yeahh. But thanks for your review

**Sarah-** wow, I never talk to you anymore! Last time I updated this we still talked! Ohh well.. we'll be going to the same school next year, but In separate buildings. Lol well I love you and miss you. And thanks for your review.

**Sagebeth-** haha what? I have no idea what you mean.. but thanks for your review


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6 

Jess spun around so fast he nearly knocked Rory over. Grabbing her arm so she wouldn't fall, he glared at the man looking down at them over the railing of the stairwell. Rory looked from Jess to the strange man on the stairs, then back again.

"Um," she said quietly, but loud enough so Jess could hear her. He turned his head a little so he could see her. "Uh, sorry, but… brother?" Jess sighed and mumbled something that sounded like 'Later'. Rory crossed her arms over her chest.

"I'm getting really sick of hearing that word." She said coldly. Jess turned fully to face her and opened his mouth to say something but was cut off.

"J, man, fight with your girlfriend some other time. Now I gotta know, what the hell you doin' back here? Not that I'm not happy to see you or anything, but it's been what, two? Three days? I highly doubt good ol' Uncle Luke managed to straighten you out already." Jess's Brother started descending the stairs, looking at Jess expectantly. However, Jess's mouth remained firmly shut. The so called brother rolled his eyes and turned to Rory, who still had her arms crossed over her chest and was looking very disgruntled and unhappy. He looked her over and smirked. "My little brother does have some taste, doesn't he?" he said. Rory blushed a little.

"I'm not his girlfriend." She said, casting a look at Jess. Why wasn't he saying anything?

"Then why are you here?" Rory looked back up at Jess's brother. He was tall, much taller than Jess. His eyes were lighter than Jess's, but they had the same color hair. They were definitely brothers. This fact threw Rory a little. She had pegged Jess as an only child, but apparently she had been very wrong. "Do you speak?" the brother asked. Rory gave him a confused look, and then remembered he asked her a question. She rolled her eyes.

"Ask him." she nodded at Jess. Jess shook his head, but looked up at his brother and spoke.

"She's in trouble." He gestured toward Rory. "Something's after her." His brother nodded.

"So you decided to play the hero. How noble of you." Jess shook his head again.

"If you don't want to help me keep her alive, fine. But we're staying here." He said the last part very forcefully. Not that she wanted to or anything, but she was scared to argue. Jess's brother, however, seemed completely unfazed by the intimidating tone in Jess's voice. He put a hand to his chest as though he had been shot there and gave Jess a hurt look.

"I can't _believe_ you think I would just let this girl die. It's like you don't know me at all. I have nothing but warm and fuzzy feelings for the innocent." He said, his voice dripping with the most sarcasm Rory had ever heard in her entire life. Jess just rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, okay Mac." He said, no longer looking at his brother. He was staring at Rory. She was looking around at her surroundings, a lost expression on her face. Mac started saying something, clueless to the fact that neither Jess nor Rory were paying attention. Rory walked over to a nearby table and picked up a book lying at the top of a small pile. _The History of the Vampyr: origin and growth_ was the title. For some reason, looking at this book made breathing very difficult for Rory. She dropped the book and it landed with a resounding _clunk_ on the table.

Jess noticed that Mac had stopped talking, but he didn't look at him. He could feel his brother's eyes burning a hole in the back of his head but he didn't care. He knew something was wrong. He took a step closer to her. "Rory?" She didn't look up. Jess took another step closer to her. "Rory?" he asked again, but she still didn't respond. She appeared to be gasping for breath. Jess took another step towards her. Then something weird happened.

Mac grasped Jess's upper arm and pulled him back. Both had their eyes transfixed on Rory. She looked perfectly normal now, except her hand was now clutching her throat. Jess looked up at Mac.

"You saw that, right?" Mac asked, a fully freaked out expression on his face. Jess nodded and looked back at Rory. She seemed to have contained her breath and was staring down at a book on the table. She looked perfect. It was the strangest thing. For the briefest second before, Rory looked nothing like Rory. It happened so fast; it was easy to question whether it actually happened at all. But it had to have. They had both seen it. Rory's entire body had flashed black. She had looked shriveled, one might even say dead, as though she had been cast into flames seconds before and someone had sculpted an indistinguishable body out of the ashes.

"Okay, I'll help you."

Jess looked up at his big brother. He was still looking at Rory. He looked back at her too. "This is gonna be an interesting case, huh?" Mac said with the slightest bit of excitement in his voice. Jess didn't say anything. He didn't trust his voice at the moment. Rory wasn't a case. She was a person. A person Jess had just realized he really liked.

He started walking towards Rory again. She looked up at him, a strange expression on her face. Then, as suddenly as her black flash before, she collapsed on the ground.

--------------

Rory slowly opened her eyes. She not only saw Jess and Mac standing over her, but at least five people she had never seen before. She blinked a couple times, inwardly groaned, then tried to sit up. Immediate, head-splitting pain shot through her. She's never had a worse headache in her entire life. She grumpily glared at the people surrounding her and stood up, flinching at the throbbing in her head.

"Are you okay?" Jess asked her, gently putting a hand on her arm. She angrily pulled away from him.

"No, I'm not okay. I'm the complete opposite of okay. I want you to explain. _Now_. And if anything that even slightly resembles the word 'later' comes out of your mouth I swear I will castrate you." Jess gave her an amused look.

"This coming form a girl who can't even stake a vampire." He said. Rory's face just grew darker.

"Jess." She warned, crossing her arms over her chest. He sighed and nodded.

"Okay." He said. He looked around the building. "This," he gestured to their surroundings, "is PD by A and SF."

Rory stared at him incredulously. "Well that just rolls off the tongue. Is it supposed to mean something?" she asked with a tad bit of hostility in her voice.

"Preventing Death by Armed and Skilled Fighting. It's an organization that deals with… well, stuff like whatever's after you. We kind of protect people." Jess said. He was watching her very carefully. He didn't know why, but he had a strange feeling that she was going to lose it and breakdown again any minute now.

"So, you save lives, basically?" She said. Her face must have looked surprised because Jess suddenly got defensive.

'"Yeah, I did. Why, does that come as a shock to you?" Rory's anger was faltered for a moment as she withered under Jess's stare.

"Well, I mean it's a little surprising. You just don't really seem like the hero type. You're more of a coming-over-a-stranger's-house-and-stealing-a-beer-then-mysteriously-leaving type of guy." She said, referring to the night before.

"I can't be both guys?" Jess asked her.

"Well-"

"I mean have you ever seen _Angel_? You wouldn't expect him to be the hero type, and yet-"

"What's wrong with you Jess? You're talking an excessive amount tonight." Rory and Jess both looked around at the girl who spoke. She stood out from the rest of the group because of her violently purple hair. Rory thought fleetingly of Lane, a small smile appearing on her face. She turned back to Jess, who shrugged at the girl.

"The verbal thing comes and goes, Heather." He said indifferently. He turned back to Rory. Everyone else took it upon themselves to sit down, and he motioned for her to do the same.

"So, anyway," he said, sitting down himself, "The PD by A and SF-"

"No offense Jess, but that name kind of really sucks." Rory said, cutting him off. She saw out of the corner of her eye that Mac was glaring at her.

"Yeah, well, Mac made it up." Jess explained.

"Hey!" Mac said defensively. Jess rolled his eyes.

"Anyway, " he continued, as if no one had spoken, "Most of the people who are in the PD by A and SF live here, like all these people." Jess nodded at everyone seated around them. "Some people just come and go. There's not that many people who know about us, mostly because not that many people believe in stuff like Vampires and Demons."

"So, what? You just woke up one day and said, 'Hey, I bet there's a lot of strange evil beings in the world. I should gather some followers and terminate them!'?" Heather giggled at this, but Jess just looked down.

"Not exactly. I didn't initiate this group. I just… got involved." This vague explanation didn't suit Rory, but she didn't press it. Jess had sounded even more emotionless than normal when he said he'd gotten involved.

"Okay… well… so, do you know what's going on with me, then?" she asked, not so subtly changing the subject.

"First off, I think we all deserve to know who you are." Everyone turned to look at the girl who had spoken. She was sitting next to Heather and looked very unhappy to have been woken up. "Jess hardly ever brings the innocents he finds back here. He refuses to accept any help. Not that he needs it, really. I mean he's the best fighter we have. But still, there's got to be something about you that made him come all the way back to New York just to save your life." She said this last part as though Rory's life wasn't that precious of a thing. She turned to Jess. "This chic better be pretty damn special, Mariano. Do you realize it's a quarter to four in the morning? Some of us have an 8AM class tomorrow." She turned back to Rory and glared. Rory looked down. Obviously Jess hadn't told them anything while she was unconscious.

Jess didn't respond at all to the cranky girl. Instead, he exchanged a very annoyed look with a sandy haired guy to Rory's right.

"Guess we're doing introductions now, then." Mac said with fake enthusiasm. "Everyone, this is Jess's not-girlfriend, Rory. Not-girlfriend, I'm Mac, Jess's brother, as you've obviously figured out. Hopefully you know Jess, otherwise we'd have to wonder if you have any common sense at all coming all the way to New York with a stranger." Rory glared at Jess when Mac said this, but Jess just smirked. "That's Heather. I guarantee you wont recognize her tomorrow because her hair will be a completely different color. The brat next to her is Jaide. Feel free to ignore everything that comes out of her mouth. Everyone else does (Rory smirked as Jaide huffed and crossed her arms over her chest). Next to you is Boone," Mac pointed to the Sandy haired guy, who nodded at Rory. "Over there, that's Simon, but we call him Feratu."

"Why?"

"It's short for Nosferatu." Rory wrinkled her nose.

"Isn't that a movie?" she asked. Mac nodded.

"Yeah, the name suits Simon."

"It does?" To Rory, Simon looked like a Simon. Feratu sounded like a name for a talking gargoyle.

"Haven't you seen the movie?" Mac asked her. She shook her head.

"I've only heard of it." Mac raised his eyebrows and smirked. He looked almost identical to Jess when he did this.

"Oh, well-"

"Then it's probably best you don't know the reason behind the nickname. For now, at least" Jess cut in. He waved a hand in the direction of the last stranger, a girl with long blonde hair who strongly reminded Rory of Louise from Chilton. "That's Jill." He said, finishing the introductions. He turned his full attention to Rory now. "Okay, so that's the gang. Moving on…" Jess seemed in a hurry to explain everything, but Rory wasn't planning on letting him just breeze through it. She had questions. More questions than she'd ever had in her life. She decided to start with her first concern.

"When are we going to go back to Stars Hollow?" She asked. Jess opened his mouth to say something, then closed it and glared at Jaide, who had let out a rather loud snigger.

"If you go back to Stars Hollow, you mean." She said. Rory wanted to ask her what she meant but she had a feeling she already knew.

"Jaide." Jess said annoyed.

"What? You don't honestly expect her to come out of this alive? Look at her! She's probably never been in a fight in her entire life."

Jess clenched his jaw. "I'll teach her." He said through gritted teeth. Jaide rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, have fun. Don't expect us to help."

"Why don't you just keep your mouth shut, Jaide?" Snapped Boone.

"Really, speak for yourself." Heather piped in. "Just because you care that saving innocent lives inconveniences yours doesn't mean we all do."

"Where's Kane?" Jess asked abruptly, turning sharply to Mac. He was looking around and seemed to have just noticed someone's absence. Everyone went silent, all eyes now on the two brothers. Mac looked slightly uncomfortable.

"Uhm, yeah… about that…he's sort of in the hospital." Jess's eyes widened.

"Why?"

"Well, he had a heart attack yesterday. A minor one!" Mac added, because Jess looked like he was going to fall over. "He's going to be fine, they said. He just needs to stay there a couple days…"

"Why didn't I know this?" Jess asked angrily. Everyone but Rory was watching the brother's interaction.

"Whose Kane?" she asked Heather quietly.

"He runs this place. He's kind of like our mentor. He and Jess are particularly close. I think Jess thinks of him as a sort of father figure." Heather whispered, but it was pointless because Jess obviously heard her. He whirled around and gave her a very cold look.

"It wouldn't kill you to keep your mouth shut either, Heather!" Heather opened her mouth to respond, but she was cut off by Jill.

"I have an idea. How about everyone shuts up for five seconds so Jess can finally tell us what's up with this Rory chic." Rory gave her a small smile, but it wasn't returned. In fact, Rory thought she saw a great look of disgust and dislike flash in Jill's eyes. Rory pushed that to the back of her mind and turned to Jess,

"I like that idea." She said. He sighed and looked at her. She really did look lost. Jess shook his head a little.

"Okay. So, something's after you." Rory nodded.

"Right, we covered that already."

"Yeah. We just don't know why. But I'm going to guess you're either really special or really dangerous. Or both, I guess."

"Why would you guess that?" Rory asked.

"Because people don't usually send twenty vamps to a fairy tale town and make sure all its inhabitants (with the exception of one girl) have disappeared just so they could feed." The others started to Murmur at this point but Feratu somehow managed to silence them.

"You didn't disappear either." Rory pointed out.

"Yes, but I already explained why I was probably still there."

"Yeah, but what about what you said about the town coming back. What if they're all still… wherever they went? What if they really can't come back until those vampires kill me? Then I'll never see my mom again and- oh my God." She had just realized something. She actually might _never_ see her mother again. That things- those _vampires_ were real. It was completely possible that she might die here. In fact, she was starting to believe that there was no chance she'd get out of this alive.

"Oh my God." She said again. "Oh my God! Jess! I'm going to die!" Jess shook his head and stood up.

"No, you're not." he said confidently, but Rory didn't find the statement even a tad bit comforting.

"Yes, I am. I'm going to die. I'm never going home. I'm never going to see my mom again. I didn't even get to say goodbye. In a week she'll open the front door and find a body bag on the porch with me inside it! That is if she ever leaves the house again after she realizes I'm missing. Oh my God, this is going to kill her! And what about Lane? I hardly get to see her anyway because we don't go to the same school… and now she's going to lose the only person that shares her 60s music obsession. Then there's Dean to think about, which is a whole different story altogether-"

"I'm sure Dean will be fine." Jess said, barely noticing how stiff he'd gotten at the mention of Dean's name.

Rory gave him an incredulous look. "Fine? Are you kidding? You've never even met Dean. You don't know Dean and me together. Me dying is… ugh! This is all your fault." She said. Jess just looked at her for a second, then he got angry.

"My fault? How is this my fault?"

"You brought me here. You insisted that this was the only way to keep me safe. You didn't even explore any other options. You just packed your bags and dragged me here." Rory was yelling now. She was, for some reason, however, surprised when Jess yelled back.

"Sorry I saved your life, then. Next time you're getting chased by vampires I'll just turn my back and let them feed on you." Rory glared at him.

"All you did was temporary halt my getting killed. Watch, tomorrow morning you'll wake up to find me bleeding to death on the floor." Jess shook his head. Was she kidding?

"Will you stop?"

"No!" Rory shouted. "You obviously don't know, but this ranting thing is something we Gilmore's do when something horrible is going on. And me dying can definitely be construed as something horrible."

Jess ran his fingers through his hair, frustrated. "I'm not going to let you die." He said as calmly as he possibly could.

"How exactly are you planning on preventing it then?" she asked, her voice verging on shrilly.

"Have you not been paying attention the whole time you've been here? You're in a building where people who do this for a living _live_. There's someone here 24/7. None of us are going to let you die."

Rory stayed silent for a while after this. She was very conscious of everyone's eye starring at her, but she didn't really care that they all thought she was crazy. Nor did she care that she had come off as a complete bitch. She was trying her best to calm down, but the only thing running through her mind at the moment were about a thousand scenarios in which she would be brutally murdered.

"Anyway," Jess said when he realized Rory wasn't going to say anything. "We don't even know if they want to kill you. Whoever sent those vampires looking for you might have just wanted you. Like I said before, there's got to be something about you that no one knows. None of that matters right now, though. Right now the only thing that matters is that you're safe."

Rory became slightly calmer at this, but it didn't last.

"Well, actually," Mac said, "She's probably not safe."

Everyone turned to look at him. All calmness quickly evaporated from Rory.

"How is she not safe? There're seven people here to protect her."

"Yes, but are we going to be able to protect her from herself?" Mac asked matter-of-factly.

"What do you mean 'protect me from myself'?" Rory asked, confused. "I'm not suicidal…"

"No? We never would have guessed, what with your speech of how turned off you are by dying and everything. I mean, I know it made me think you were going to grab one of the daggers from the weapon chest and shove it through your chest. But I suppose if you say you're not suicidal then we'll just have to believe you."

Everyone turned to stare at Jill. Rory was sure now that she hadn't imagined the look in her eyes earlier.

"Right…" said Mac. "Well, what I meant was that Rory here obviously has some sort of powers. Th-"

"What? Where'd you gather that from?" Rory asked, bewildered.

"Before you passed out, you couldn't breath, right?" Mac asked her. She nodded.

"Yeah, that's probably why I passed out." She said slowly, not sure how he could conclude that she had powers because of that.

"Right, well… did you feel like you were dying?" Rory thought back for a moment, then nodded.

"So?" she asked.

"So you looked dead." Jess said, catching on.

"And since powers are tied to emotions…" Mac said.

"Whatever she's feeling will probably be put in the literal sense." Jess finished, looking worried.

"Really? Because right now I feel like hitting both your heads together, but that's not literally happening, is it?" Rory said sarcastically. It was one thing to believe there was such thing as vampires, but it was a whole different thing to believe she had magical powers.

"I agree with Rory." Heather said. "If she had powers, don't you think she'd know it by now?"

"Not if she never had reason to use her powers before."

"Boone's right. Especially if she's the only magical being in her family. Then she never would have known to use her powers because no one ever used magic around her; she never would have known she had powers." Feratu said.

"Look, can we please finish his tomorrow? This is obviously a very complicated case and we're not getting anywhere tonight." Jaide yawned loudly. "And because of this pointless meeting I'm going to be falling asleep in class tomorrow. Thanks a lot Jess." she got up and stormed upstairs, apparently having enough of the meeting even though she hadn't paid attention to any of it.

"Guess this is Blame Jess Night. Hey, I broke Jill's straightening iron this morning. You can take the fault for that." Heather said, grinning. Jill, however, looked like she was close to committing homicide.

"What do you mean you broke it?" Jill asked through clenched teeth. Rory rolled her eyes; this was obviously one of those look-obsessed girls. She looked at Heather, but she seemed fairly unconcerned that Jill was giving her a death glare.

"Well, I didn't feel like holding it." Heather said, as if this was an explanation. Apparently, to everyone who wasn't Rory it was an explanation.

"You were levitating it, weren't you?" Jill asked angrily. Heather shrugged.

"Its not like you've never dropped it before." She said.

"Yeah, but there's a less chance of dropping it when you're actually holding on to it." Jill flared.

Heather rolled her eyes. "Buy a new one." She said. Jill shook her head angrily.

"I hate you." She said before pushing back her chair stomping miserably upstairs. Heather smirked.

"I suppose I'll go actually break her straightener now. Meeting's over, right?" she asked, standing up. Jess was about to tell her that no, the meeting was not over, and would she please go upstairs and tell the two self-centered bitches to get their asses back down here, when Boone spoke.

"It's really late, man. We can figure this all out tomorrow, hopefully while Jaide's in class."

Jess sighed. "Fine." The rest of the gang all stood up and went upstairs. The only people left were Rory and Jess. Rory looked down.

"Sorry I freaked out before. I mean, obviously you don't want me to die. I just… I don't know. I just want to talk to my mom." Jess nodded.

"Call her." He said. Rory looked up.

"I can do that?" she asked. Jess nodded again.

"You should probably have her call Luke too. You know, in case he's worried." He said.

"But what if the town's still gone?" Rory asked.

"Its possible, but I highly doubt it. You won't know unless you try, though."

Rory smiled and, without thinking, hugged Jess. He stood still for a moment, then wrapped his arms around her. "Thank you." She whispered in his ear. "For everything." She pulled away from him. He point at a room to their left.

"Phones in there." he said. Rory nodded and started walking toward it, then stopped and turned around.

"What did Jill mean when she said Heather 'levitated' her straightening iron? How could she have done that?"

Jess shrugged. "She's a witch." He said. Rory's jaw dropped.

"You're serious, aren't you?" she asked.

"Unfortunately."

"Huh. And Simon has the nickname 'Nosferatu' because…?" Jess shook his head.

"Trust me, you're better off not knowing." Rory nodded.

"Right…" And she turned around and walked into the other room, Jess watching her go.

A/n- omg, the longest chapter of this fic and I despise it. I literally had no idea what I was doing for this chapter. I kept switching from one thing to another. It was not supposed to be this long!! I kept getting off track. Plus Jess is completely out of character. Like… insanely out of character. Ughh. Well yeah, this is chapter 6. all five horrible pages of it. enjoy.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Jess had shown Rory a spare room she could sleep in for however long they were staying. She was exhausted, but sleep definitely wasn't coming to her that night. Her thoughts were racing, all in a fight to take over her mind. All the events that took place tonight… everything she heard, it was all enough to put her brain in overdrive. But the thing that was bugging her the most wasn't all that stuff about vampires and witches and (gulp) magical powers she herself possessed. No, the main thing that kept popping up in Rory's head was the conversation with her mom.

Hearing her mother's voice and knowing she couldn't see her for an unknown amount of time almost made Rory throw up. It broke her heart to hear the worry and fear in the elder Lorelai's voice. She was frantic, but Rory had expected that. She was just happy her mom was safe at home and not still missing. Jess was right. That realization both comforted and scared her. If he was right about the town, the rest must be true too.

She'd explained to her mom what had happened. Well, sort of. She'd told her that someone was out to get her, for what reason, she didn't know, and that she didn't know what to do so she ran for it. Lorelai went completely psycho. She demanded Rory to tell her where she was and flipped on her for just taking off. She went into a thoroughly ridiculous speech about how when some creepy stalker is after you, you tell mommy so you both can go hide in Peru pretending to be exotic foreign women who spend their days eating exotic foreign food and being adored by exotic foreign men. Then she went back into panic mode and suggested everything from calling the police to going into the witness protection program. Rory had to explain that neither of those options would do any good. She tried her best to assure her mother that she was as safe as she could be in this situation. After a while, Lorelai calmed down a bit. She didn't like it one bit that her daughter was off God knows where (Rory refused to tell her she was in New York. She knew if her mom had even the slightest idea where Rory was she'd go looking for her, and Rory didn't want her mom involved in this anymore than she had to be) hiding from some random unknown creep who for some reason had it in for her, but she trusted Rory and understood that the information she had was probably the best she was going to get at the moment.

The only thing that seemed to momentarily pause the scariness of the situation for Lorelai was finding out that Rory was with Luke's punk-ass nephew. If she had felt even the slightest bit comforted by this whole thing, it immediately went away at the mention of Jess's name.

"Jess!?" She had practically shrieked. Rory somehow managed to calm her down. After about another half hour, Rory reluctantly hung up with her mother.

And now there she is, lying in a bed that isn't hers and feeling so unbelievably homesick. It was about a quarter to 7 in the morning when an extremely unpleasant realization hit her.

"No way!" she screamed at Jess when he opened his bedroom door. He seemed to have actually been asleep, because his eyes were barely open and he jumped about 3 feet when Rory yelled.

"Geez, do you want to try and not wake up the whole gang? You're not exactly their favorite person as it is right now."

"He's a vampire!" Rory yelled as she pushed her way into Jess's room. He shut the door and turned to look at her, the last remainders of sleep slowly leaving him. "I can not believe you! Are you serious right now, you wouldn't tell me this? You sat downstairs with all you're slayer buddies, joking about this monumentally huge piece of information that you all were keeping from me!"

Jess just looked at her, slightly taken aback. "Huh?"

"Nosferatu!"

Jess stopped looking confused and adopted a look of surprise. They both just stood, staring at each other, until Jess spoke.

"I thought you said you never saw the movie." Rory just shook her head. Like that's a reasonable explanation.

"I'm not into silent films. They creep me out. My mom is though. She slept in my room for a _week_ after watching that movie because she was so scared." Jess didn't say anything. He just stood, staring at Rory's angry frame pacing his room. She was so mad at him, she forgot to be scared.

"Jess!"

"Huh?"

"Well, nothing really. Just this tiny little dilemma I'm having. See, I'm kind of hiding from a mob of vampires at the moment, but somehow I've ended up living in a house with one." She glared at him with as much contempt as she could muster, but he didn't seem fazed by it.

"Its not the same thing with him. He's different." She looked at him incredulously.

"He's a vampire! What, are there, like, different species or something?"

"No. But he's not like the rest of them. He's half human." Rory blinked at him.

"Huh?"

"Look, Rory, it's a really long story and its late-"

"Actually, its early. If I was at home, I'd already be halfway to Luke's." She immediately regretted saying this. A sharp pain went through her, reminding her that she's not home, and she doesn't know if she'll ever have breakfast at Luke's again.

Her face must have shown how she was feeling, because Jess took a step closer to her. "It's all going to be fine, okay? You'll be fine." She looked down for a second, blinking back her tears. When she looked back up at him, his eyes bore into hers. They were full of kindness and concern, two things she was sure didn't appear in them very often. She shook her head.

"No, I won't. I can't sleep in that room now. Its right next to Simon's." Jess just shook his head at her.

"He's harmless. He didn't get that way by being attacked. He was just born with it. But I promise, he's as human as you and I. He's just a little dangerous when he loses his temper, that's all. But that doesn't happen often."

Not a word of that reached Rory's brain. She just looked at him for a couple minutes, trying to remember what he just said. "Okay, you know what? I'm running on about 15 minutes of sleep, which is not good. Us Gilmore's, we love our sleep. So let's just talk about this in another 12 hours." Jess just smirked, happy she wasn't upset about it anymore. But there was still a problem.

"But you just said you can't sleep in that room. There are no other spare rooms." Rory shrugged.

"Then I guess you have a roommate." She said. She started looking around, searching for something.

"What are you looking for?" Jess asked her.

"A sleeping bag. Although why you'd have a sleeping bag just randomly lying on the floor, I don't know. It'd probably make more sense to ask, huh?"

Jess shrugged. "I don't have a sleeping bag." He said.

"Oh." Rory looked down. "What should I do then?" Jess shrugged again.

"Bed's better than the floor." Rory's head snapped up.

"I don't want to kick you out of your bed. That's mean. Unless you want to switch rooms, in which case, I'd be fine with that…"

"This room is my sanctuary. I'm not about to give it up. Anyway, I never said anything about me not sleeping in the bed also."

A look of surprise crossed over Rory's face, but in an instant it was gone, replaced by a pained expression. Jess nodded. "Right, Dean wouldn't like that too much."

Rory bit her lip. "Dean's not here."

She had no idea what she was doing. Something completely strange and unfamiliar to Rory had taken over her body, and before she knew what had happened, she was lying in Jess's twin bed, with Jess lying next to her. There wasn't much room, but they managed not to touch. The lack of physical closeness, however, didn't seem to stop Rory from feeling like she's never been so close to anyone in her entire life, not even Dean.

However wrong this may be, Rory was thankful for the distraction. She couldn't bear to think about home any longer. It just made her heart ache, and she knew as time went on it would only get worse. So the break from her thoughts was welcome. All there was to Rory at that moment was fluttering butterflies that somehow never got this riled up when she was around Dean.

Lying there with Rory gave Jess a strange sensation he never felt lying next to a girl before, not even Jill. He watched all the different emotions cross her face. This wasn't what she wanted. Getting mixed up in all this stuff was never a plan for her. Watching her, he realized with a sinking feeling that she'd never choose this life. She had something better to go back to. She was the complete opposite of him, and yet he found himself unable to look away from her. In that moment, she was everything. His walls were getting broken down, and this girl he just met was worming her way in. To say he was scared would be an understatement. Yet there was an abnormal excitement he was feeling, and that almost overpowered his fear.

He shook his head and closed his eyes. It didn't even matter what this girl made him feel. Whatever was happening, it didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was she was here. Albeit she didn't want to be, but she was there. He might as well enjoy it while it lasted.

A/N- well once again Jess is out of Character. Ughh, whatever. I don't even care. Well I just wrote this whole chapter in one day, and that never happens, soo I'm pretty proud of myself. Too bad the chapters crap. I hate when I spend soo much time writing and I don't get anything accomplished. Does anyone find anything out in this chapter? Noooo ! Instead of concentrating on the storyline I turn this into stupid fluff. Not that I'm not a fan of the fluffiness, cause I so am. But I wanna move along, especially since I never update anything anymore. Sorry about that, by the way. But anyway, this is nice short chapter 7. Sucks that I went from like 5 pages to 2 pages. Oh well. Deal with it. And you're going to have to deal with my whole randomly switching from one thought to another thing again. I suck, I know, I'm sorry. And I totally don't know if Nosferatu was even supposed to be scary, but it's a silent film, so I'm guessing yeah. Oh! But I'm happy cause I finally figured out what I'm doing with Mac! I'm soo excited. It'll take forever though, but its gonna be awesome. You're all gonna hate him, then you're gonna love him, then BAM! Excitement baby! Hah, I creep myself out. All right well that's all. Hope you enjoy. If I get a lot of reviews, maybe I'll update faster ;) nice how those things work out, huh?

**Sarah-** uhm, yeah you're definitely not gonna read this unless I tell you I updated, which I won't unless you bring it up. soo yeahh,, but anywho, totally into kyle xy. Pretty darned excited for it. lol welpp I miss you, even though we go to the same school. We'll probably end up on the same campus next year though.. so that should be not so fun, but atleast we'll see eachother.

Well, I'm off to enjoy my **four day weekend** )


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

Rory was alone when she woke up. She looked at the clock. It was a quarter after ten. She groaned and rolled over. Sometime during the night (or morning), she felt Jess's arm wrap around her body. She didn't look to see if he was awake. She knew he wasn't. She hadn't even thought to gently move away from him. She was too overcome by the safe feeling she got from his touch. That's why she wasn't confused about her whereabouts when she woke up. The feeling she had gotten was much too real for any of this to be a dream, and was altogether unforgettable. She woke up with so many different emotions coursing through her that morning she almost forgot to feel guilty. Almost.

She rolled back over onto her back. Maybe if Dean were here she wouldn't be having these mixed emotions about another guy she's known all of two days. As Rory stared up at the ceiling tiles, she tried to imagine what it would be like if Dean was the one protecting her. She could see the whole thing in her head. At the first sign of danger he would have picked her up in his arms and whisked her away, leaving all the scariness behind. He would have had all the answers. As soon as the coast was clear, he'd scout around, trying to find a reason why the town went a-wol. He would never have allowed any vampire to get in such close proximity to her. He'd have killed anything that tried, never letting her lift a finger.

Those were what would have been the good parts. The truth was Rory knew if Dean had been her knight in shining armor, she'd have no idea what's going on. He'd leave her in the dark because he sees her too fragile to know such frightening information. He'd be so overprotective she wouldn't be able to breathe, forget fight. And most importantly, though she tried to deny it, she knew deep down that the overwhelming safe feeling she had gotten early this morning never would have come to be if Dean had been the one protecting her.

Sigh. This was complicated.

She got out of Jess's bed and wandered out into the hall. Jill paused at the foot of the stairs when she saw Rory emerge from Jess's room. She shot her a death glare and then proceeded down the stairs.

"Wow, she really hates you."

Rory turned around. A girl was standing on the other side of the hall. She had long black hair pulled into two braids. Rory hadn't the slightest idea who she was.

"Um…?"

"Heather. You met me last night, remember?" Rory did remember. She remembered meeting a nice girl with cool, non-Goth hair. This girl was slightly scary looking.

"Oh!" Mac had told Rory she wouldn't recognize her. "Right. You're the witch."

Heather just smiled. "So, are you his new girlfriend?"

"Am I… no, of course not. I just met Jess a couple of days ago."

Heather didn't seem to think it was so illogical. She might have thought Rory was a little crazy, though. "Do you usually sleep in the beds of people you just met a couple of days ago?"

Rory sighed. That was a very good point. "Not as often as I take off with people I just met a couple of days ago."

Heather smiled. "You know, that's why she doesn't like you."

Rory furrowed her eyebrows. "You mean Jill?" Heather nodded. "What do you mean?" Rory asked.

"Her and Jess had a thing."

"Oh." Rory's heart sank. She ignored it.

"She was more into it than he was, but she was definitely his most serious girlfriend."

"And she's not over him?" Rory asked. Heather shook her head. "She thinks I'm a threat, doesn't she?"

Heather shrugged. "She has good reason. You did sleep in his room last night."

Rory sighed and rubbed her forehead. "Only because he didn't tell me some crucial information about my neighbor."

"You figured out why we call him Nosferatu?"

"Yes, and Jess refused to switch rooms with me."

Heather laughed. "Feratu's harmless, I swear. You'd have to get him really worked up, but he's acquired possibly the best patience in the world over the years."

This comforted Rory a little bit. "I was just freaking out, I guess. Do you think if I told Jill that she wouldn't give me the stink eye every time I see her anymore?" she asked.

"Nope."

"Oh." Rory was confused.

"Jess never brings his innocents here. He's too proud to accept help from anyone. So, when he showed up last night with you, we were all pretty surprised. Jill probably has it in her mind that you two are in love or something."

Rory blinked, not knowing how to respond. She changed the subject. "Speaking of Jess, where is he?"

"He went to the hospital," Jill said. Rory's eyes widened.

"Why?"

"To see how Kane's doing."

"Oh." She remembered who Heather said Kane was.

"He should be home soon. In the meantime, you might want to evacuate. Jaide's gonna be home soon, and she's feeling a little resentful."

Rory nodded. "Right. Bathroom?"

"Are you going, or are you showering?" Heather asked.

"Showering," Rory said, confused.

"Locker room's down the hall to your left." Rory just looked at her. "This is an old high school."

"Oh," Rory said. "Right. So obviously there are locker rooms. It makes sense."

Heather smiled. "You'll get the hang of living here."

"I hope not," Rory said dejectedly.

"I know this is hard, but it's for the best. You'll be safe here. It's a Catholic high school."

Rory stared. "It is?" Heather nodded.

They heard a door slam. Jaide's voice could be heard from all the way on the second floor.

"Go," Heather said.

"Thanks," Rory said, then went off to shower.

--

Rory locked the door behind her. You wouldn't be able to tell this was a school if it weren't for this room. There were rows and rows of lockers. The showers were all separated by thin walls and were covered by flimsy, tacky curtains. Rory stood in front of the mirror, staring at her reflection. Her hair was all over the place and there were slight dark circles under her eyes. She was exhausted. She wanted to go home.

Home.

She cried for her entire shower.

Fifteen minutes later Rory was clean and tearless. She headed downstairs, but when she got there she quickly turned around. Jaide was sitting at the table they had all been at last night. Rory wasn't quick enough.

"Hey!"

Rory cursed silently. She turned around.

"I had a pop quiz this morning that I _completely_ bombed!"

Rory swallowed. "Sorry."

"You should be! I can't fail. I _never_ fail! Now, because of you, my future and reputation are ruined."

"Um… I think you're being a little bit overdramatic."

Rory could swear she saw flames erupt in Jaide's eyes. She went to push Rory, who shut her eyes. Instead of feeling Jaide's wrath, she heard a big crash. She opened her eyes. Jaide was sprawled on the floor about ten feet away, books scattered all around her from the bookcase she rammed into. Rory's eyes widened and she ran to her side. She heard footsteps running down the stairs but didn't look up.

"Oh my God. Are you okay?" she tried to help her up, but Jaide pulled away from her.

"Get away from me." She said fiercely. Rory was taken aback.

"What?"

"Just stay the hell away from me." Boone was there now, and he pulled her up. Heather and Jill were standing close by, looking confused.

"I was just trying to help." Rory said weakly. Jaide looked at her like she was insane.

"Help? You're the one that did this to me psycho!"

Rory stepped back, confused. She shook her head. "I didn't do anything," she said.

"Yes you did! You closed your eyes and did some freaky voodoo! You're just like Heather!"

Rory, stunned, turned to Heather, who just shrugged. She looked at Jill and Boone. You could see from their faces that they didn't know who to believe.

"What the hell happened?"

Everyone turned. Jess was there, along with Mac and Simon. Rory turned back to the others, and Jaide pointed an accusatory finger at Rory.

"You're girlfriend attacked me with her mind!" she exclaimed. Rory looked back at Jess, who just blinked.

"I didn't do anything, I swear," she said hurriedly. To her great surprise, Mac started laughing. That just seemed to enrage Jaide more.

"We have an evil psycho-witch in here and you're _laughing_? What's wrong with you?!" But this just made Mac laugh harder. Jaide screamed and stormed out of the school. Mac howled.

"This isn't funny!" Rory yelled, "She thinks I threw her into a bookshelf with my mind!" Mac just shook his head and sat down; he was laughing so hard he couldn't stand up right. Jess came to stand next to Rory.

"Ignore him," he said. "What happened?"

"I don't know!" Rory said, frustrated.

"Do you really think she's a witch, Jess? Because that would be more than awesome."

Jess sighed, "Heather-"

"Right, because that's all we need. Another freak."

Jess shook his head. "Jill-"

"Excuse me?" Heather said. "I'd rather be a freak than a bitch."

"Guys-"

"You're so-"

"Get out of here, both of you!" Jess snapped. Both girls stopped and stared at Jess. "Go!" Jill shook her head and bound upstairs. Heather sheepishly said sorry, and then followed Jill. Jess shook his head and turned to Rory. She just looked at him, confused and slightly scared.

"Rory, can you please try to tell me what happened?"

Rory opened her mouth but Mac cut across her, apparently over his laughing fit.

"She's fucking amazing, that's what happened."

Jess shook his head again, annoyed. "Mac, shut up or get out." Mac just shook his head.

"Whatever, man. But she's gonna be one hell of a witch, once she learns some control."

Rory's eyes widened. "I'm not a witch!"

"Right," Mac said.

"I'm not!"

"Mac." Jess said warningly.

"J, be serious. And with the power she's showing, it's no wonder the vamps want to get their hands on her."

Rory just shook her head as the two brothers continued fighting. How can they talk like she's not there? This is her life that's getting turned upside down! Why won't anyone talk to her?

"Guy's, stop. You're scaring her." Simon turned to Rory. "Just tell us what happened." He didn't say it in a demanding way, but something about his eyes made her do what he said. She sighed.

"She was mad at me because she failed a quiz this morning and it's my fault."

"No, it's my fault," Jess said. Rory shook her head.

"No. Whatever this is, it's about me. All the consequences are my fault. Anyway," she ignored Jess, who looked like he had more to say, "she was going to push me and I guess I reflexively shut my eyes. I heard a crash and when I opened my eyes she was on the floor and books were all over the place."

All the boys looked at each other, and as they did so Rory realized she was the only girl left in the room. She sat down at the table and pulled her legs up, hugging her knees. The boys were conversing without her again, and this time they all joined in. Something about emotions and mentally defending herself and being unaware of what she was doing. The more they said the more she felt like a psychiatric patient awaiting her diagnosis. The word 'witch' was brought up again and Rory thought she might scream.

She tuned their conversation out. They don't remember she's sitting there anyway. She looked around for a clock and found one by a statue of Mary. Her brow furrowed, but then she remembered. _Catholic school, not creepy, catholic school…_

Eleven-thirty. She doesn't like how time passes here. It feels like a year and a half since she was standing in the Star's Hollow Street comparing Jess to an Oliver Twist Character. Who knew how much life could change in one night.

Being in the room, watching them talk about her life, it was suffocating her. She felt like she couldn't breathe. As soon as she thought it, she saw it. Her hands were shriveled and black. She was decayed, the remains of someone too weak to deal with some otherworldly change.

Her skin went back to normal. She looked up at the boys, but they were too engrossed in their conversation to notice anything. When they started asking Feratu if her blood smells different to him, she decided it was time to bail.

No one noticed her slip out of the room. She looked around. The enormity of the building astonished her. She wondered if all catholic high schools were this big. For some reason, she doubted.

She decided to go exploring. She tried to think school. The room she was just in, where they have all the PD by A and SF meetings must have been the school foyer, since it's where the front door is. Rory supposed they renovated it to their liking. She doubted the room had different sized knives hanging on the walls back when it was a real school. She walked through a random door, and was now standing inside a small chapel.

_It doesn't get more catholic than this_, Rory thought. She walked up the aisle, looking at the miniature puzzles on the wall that played the role of the Stations of the Cross. She tried to imagine a vampire in this room. She couldn't see one making it past the threshold. She didn't go up to the altar, because she felt that was slightly disrespectful. She stayed by the pews, staring at the walls. They looked like real gold. Rory suspected there was foil mixed in, like that room she and her mom stayed in at that puke pink B&B. But this room was nice, not obnoxiously frilly, and Rory realized she liked it in here.

"There you are!"

Rory jumped. She spun around. Mac was standing in the doorway.

"There we were, conversing about your fate and all of a sudden Boone looks over and see's that you've disappeared. We were worried sick. Shame on you. Tsk tsk."

Rory rolled her eyes and sat down in one of the pews. "Are you sure you're Jess's brother?"

Mac laughed. "There have been some doubts."

Rory smiled, but it didn't last long. She looked up at him. "So, what's the prognosis?"

He sat down next to her. "Well, it doesn't seem very likely you're an ordinary girl. If you're not a witch, then we don't have the slightest clue what you are."

Rory sighed. "That's lovely."

Mac chuckled. "Believe it or not, it's actually a good thing you're showing signs of excessive power."

"Is it?" Rory asked sarcastically. Mac just nodded. "And why's that?"

"The more powerful you are the less chance there is anything will live long enough to kill you."

Rory's head shot up. "I hope you're trying to be funny."

Mac looked down at her. "Which scares you more? The power or getting killed?"

His words were soft, but something about the look in his eyes… Rory didn't like it. She adjusted herself in the pew awkwardly, not meeting his glance. "Um…"

"You know," Mac whispered, moving just the slightest bit closer, "This place won't protect you from _every_ kind of monster."

Rory ran a hand through her hair nervously, and then crossed her arms over her chest. She still didn't look at him. He sighed and stood up. "Of course, that's what Jess is here for." His voice was loud and sarcastic again. She looked up. Mac was looking at the doorway. Rory turned her head. Jess was standing there, looking from Rory to Mac and back again. "Speaking of my little brother, what's up man? Did you get a hold of Jaide?"

Jess looked between them once more, and then shook his head. "She didn't answer her phone. Heather's on it."

Mac nodded. "Well then, I guess I'll go draw up a game plan." He smiled at Rory. "Later." And he walked out.

Jess walked over to Rory. "You okay? You look sort of freaked."

Rory looked at him. Unlike his brother's, Jess's eyes were warm and concerned. She realized he was starting to let his guard down around her. Putting the unsettling feeling she just got from Mac aside, he was right about one thing. Jess would protect her from anything. She knew it just from looking in his eyes. She shook her head. "I'm fine. I have a favor to ask though."

Jess shrugged. "Name it."

A/n- Omg could this have taken me any longer to write? I don't know why but I just couldn't get into it. Well sorry it took so long to update, but this is officially the longest chapter, so I hope that makes up for it. Unfortunately its mostly dialogue and once again nothing gets accomplished. If I didn't love this story so much I'd give up.

**Jeremy Shane**- Don't worry. I still don't know what this is about either.

Review please.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

"No, stop. You're doing it wrong."

Rory looked down at her fists. They looked punch-worthy to her. "How do I do it then?"

"Take your thumb out of your fist," Jess said.

They were in the school's work-out room, which was attached to the gymnasium, separated only by a wide, thin glass window. Rory's never actually been in a school work-out room before, but she doubted many of them looked like this. Besides the usual exercise machines and punching bags, there were more weapons than you could think of adorning the walls, several wooden dummies with mats in the appropriate areas, a few bulls-eyes here and there, and a knife sharpener. And yet somehow, they still managed to find places to plaster wooden crosses.

"I thought you were supposed to clutch your thumb," Rory said. "Doesn't it make the fist, like, harder or something?"

Jess shook his head, "Nope. You throw a punch like that and your fist will pretty much be useless afterwards."

Rory sighed. "Okay, thumbs out. What now?"

"Now," Jess said, "you punch me."

Rory dropped her fists. "You're kidding me," She said flatly. Jess said nothing, but his expression was slightly amused. "I'm not punching you." Jess raised an eyebrow, but remained silent. "I'll practice on the punching bag or the dummy or something."

Jess smirked. "Rory, just punch me."

She shook her head. "No."

"Why not?"

"Just… because. No."

Jess's smirk grew. "I hope you're not concerned about hurting me," he said.

Rory glared. "Is that so hard to believe?"

"Is what? That you're concerned or that you actually think you'll hurt me?"

"You don't think I can hurt you?" Rory asked. Jess just gave her a 'duh' look. She just shook her head and crossed her arms over her chest. "Nope, sorry. Not going to work. I'm still not punching you."

Jess sighed. He took a step closer to her. She kept her arms crossed, looking up at him expectantly.

"Rory," he said softly, "you said you wanted to learn how to defend yourself."

"I know that," she said.

"When you're out there, you're not going to be fighting punching bags and wooden dummies. You have to know how to fight people."

Rory was lost. She pried her eyes away from his and looked down.

"Fine."

Getting back into the fighting stance Jess had shown her a few minutes before, she held up her fists again. She gave him a look of pure resentfulness, and then threw her arm backward, then forward.

He caught her wrist in his hand, holding it barely an inch away from his nose. She stared, mouth open, at her now captured wrist.

"How…?"

"Reflexes." Jess lowered his hand, but didn't let go of Rory's wrist. "Vampires are fast. You need good reflexes, otherwise you're dead."

Rory continued staring at her wrist in his hand. She didn't say anything. Jess looked down, about to let go of her wrist, when out of nowhere, a fist collided with the side of his face. He staggered backward, hand on his cheek. He looked back at Rory, whose hand was over her mouth.

"Oh, my god. I'm sorry! See? I told you I didn't want to punch you. But you were all 'Nooooo' and 'Rory, please, like _you _could hurt me' and-"

Jess pressed a finger to her lips, causing her voice to shut off. For a moment they just stared at each other. Jess took a step closer, removing his finger. He took another step, and they were so close… but then Rory looked down, and he was brought back to reality. And in reality, Rory had a boyfriend.

Jess continued on as if nothing had happened. "Another useful technique- catching the enemy off guard. You seem to have that one down."

Rory smiled. "Sorry I hurt you."

"Are you going to apologize to a vampire if you hurt it?" Jess asked. Rory rolled her eyes.

"You're not a vampire," she said.

"Good point. Maybe we should get Feratu in here."

Rory's eyes widened, as Jess knew they would. "No, that's okay. I like practicing on you."

Jess raised an eyebrow, trying to hide his amusement. "You sure? It'd probably be more effective if I had him come in here and attack you. The experience would be more realistic."

Rory looked like she was going to fall over she was so scared. She stammered something unintelligible before she noticed Jess's smirk and got angry.

"Ugh! I'm going to punch you again," she said angrily.

"Save your energy. When we're done practicing defense, we're shifting into magic."

Rory glared. There was that M word again. "What do you mean?"

"Whatever it is that's going on with you, whether you're a witch or not, you have to learn how to control it. Without control, you're dangerous."

"Is this a pep talk? It's not a very good one."

Jess sighed. "Rory-"

"No, Jess. Everything's piling up. As if being hunted down by a swarm of vampires isn't enough, now somehow I'm the one that's dangerous? This is all just… Ugh!" She flung her arms up, annoyed and pissed.

It happened very suddenly. A thunderous bang and Jess grabbed Rory around the waist and pulled her down. She screamed. Jess was on top of her. He looked up at the wooden dummy that had been centimeters away from them just a second ago. All that was left of it was a black scorch mark on the floor and a thin wisp of smoke. He swallowed hard, and then slowly rolled off of Rory. She sat up, eyes wide, and looked at the remains of the dummy. Tears stung her eyes as she looked up at Jess, who was looking back at her with caution.

"Did I do that?" she whispered.

Jess said nothing. He moved closer to her and put a hand on her shoulder.

"I didn't mean to." The tears were streaming now, and before she knew it, she was in Jess's arms, yet again, turning his shirt into a handkerchief.

--

Boone had gone out to pick up pizza. Rory hadn't even noticed how hungry she was until she smelt the food. Jess led her to the cafeteria (apparently, they actually ate in there) and sat down at a table away from the others. Rory sat down next to him, barely noticing they weren't sitting with everyone else.

The others, however, did notice. From the moment the two had exited the gym, it was like they were attached at the hip. They were in their own little world, and no one else existed. This caused some major sulking from Jill. That, on top of Jaide's absence, was causing a bad vibe to go through the entire group. Everyone ate in silence.

Rory was in deep contemplation. She was scaring herself with the weird things her mind seemed to be doing. It didn't help that all anyone could conclude about this was that she's a witch. She just couldn't believe that. But she had to believe she was something. Jess was right. If she didn't learn how to control this, she's a danger to everyone.

And then there's Jess himself. They'd spent a good half hour just sitting in the work-out room, Jess holding Rory. For the rest of the day, it was like Rory was glued to his side. He was like a drug. The more time she spent around him, the safer she felt. She needed that safe feeling.

That wasn't what scared her, though. Safe wasn't all she felt when she was around him. Despite all the scariness that seemed to be growing by the hour, she somehow managed to feel giddy. Excited even. It wasn't rational, she knew that. But she couldn't stop. When she was with him, it was like a hand was lifted from her throat, and she could breathe again. The butterflies from early that morning were back, and they had a question for her:

Where was she sleeping tonight?

Rory looked around, her eyes finally landing on Heather. Her eyes were closed, and she seemed to be concentrating really hard on something.

"She's looking for Jaide," Jess said quietly.

Rory turned to look at him. "She can find her like that? With her mind?"

"She's trying. Jaide's blocking her out."

Rory frowned. "Yet another thing that's my fault."

Jess shook his head. "It's not your fault." Rory just looked at him. "Well, it wasn't intentional."

"That doesn't make it any less my fault. God, I'm like a curse. Jaide hates me, Jill hates me… I wonder whose next."

"Jaide hates everyone," Jess said lightly.

"That really doesn't make me feel much better."

"Wait, what do you mean Jill hates you?"

She looked at him, silently cursing her stupid mouth. "What?"

"You said Jill hates you."

"No, I didn't."

Jess gave her a confused look. "Rory…"

"Um, I'm done. And I'm super tired, what with the massive amount of sleep I got last night and stuff… so, night."

She stood, but then sat down again. "Um… Where am I sleeping tonight?" she asked awkwardly. She pushed her hair behind her ears and looked down. She had spoken quietly, but she felt like the others had heard her. Jess moved closer to her. He could tell she was embarrassed.

"You're not still scared of Feratu, are you?" She didn't say anything. He sighed. "I bet you'd like him if you actually talked to him." Rory just shrugged. "You can sleep in my room again."

She gave him a small smile. "Thank you."

He just nodded. "Come on." He stood and started for the door, causing Rory to jump up and almost spill her half-full soda can.

"No, uh, wait. You… You don't have to come." He gave her a weird look. "Well, I mean it's your room, so you can come if you want… but if you didn't want to come, you don't have to."

Jess just smirked at her awkwardness. "Come on," he said again. Rory stood awkwardly for a second before following him out.

--

Rory had changed in the bathroom. She was barely awake when Jess came back from brushing his teeth. She was too tired to open her eyes, but she listened as he opened a drawer. She heard him walk over to her side of the bed and felt the pillow sink next to her head at his touch. Her eyes still closed, she felt his breath on the side of her face.

"Hey," he whispered in her ear. A chill went down her spine as she slowly opened her eyes. His face was about a centimeter away from hers. She gave him a confused look, but he just smiled.

"I have something for you," he said, moving his hand from her pillow and sitting down on the bed.

She sat up. "What?"

He handed her a small, black box. She hesitantly took it. Inside was a plain, silver cross on a silver chain. She looked up at him.

"I figured you didn't have one," he explained.

She didn't ask why he'd given it to her. She knew why she needed it.

"Thank you," she said quietly. He just nodded.

She picked it up. He was right to assume she didn't have one. She wasn't a very religious person. But she always thought cross necklaces were pretty. She loved the way this one looked. It was so simple… so beautiful.

She fumbled with the hook, causing Jess to take it from her. He opened it, moving on the bed so he was behind her. She lifted her hair up to make it easier for him. He clasped it on, his hands lingering on the back of her neck a second longer than they needed to. Rory turned to look at him. He was staring at her with a look in his eyes she'd never seen before, in anyone's eyes. She tried so hard to remember why she wasn't allowed to feel anything for him, but his eyes were boring into hers and she couldn't look away. She was lost again. He inched closer to her. She was frozen.

But then his hand grasped her left wrist, and they both looked down. His fingers were wrapped around the pendent of her bracelet, his thumb caressing the surface of it. And suddenly she remembered why she wasn't allowed to feel anything for Jess.

"Nice bracelet," he said softly. He knew, she knew he did. But he wanted her to say it.

She swallowed hard. "Dean gave it to me." Her voice was barely audible, but he heard her. As soon as she spoke, he dropped her wrist.

He went to turn off the light. Rory blinked, adapting her eyes to the sudden darkness. He said nothing as he got into his bed. Rory sunk down in the bed. Her mind was racing. What was she doing?

She didn't know what was worse, the fact that she almost cheated on Dean with a guy she's known all of three days, or the fact that she hadn't even remembered Dean existed.

But deep down, she knew the worst thing was neither of those. It was knowing she was falling way too hard and fast for Jess Mariano.

A/n- Twice in one month. When was the last time I've updated that fast? Well I promise next chapter there will be some information. But hey, how impressive is it that I can go through six whole pages without accomplishing anything?

Now to express my aggravation. I'm getting really sick of updating this story and getting a bunch of emails saying people put it on their favorite list or their alert list, but they didn't bother reviewing it. Obviously you like it, or you wouldn't make it a favorite or have the website email you whenever there's a new chapter. I like hearing that you like it. It inspires me to write more.

So, on that note, review please.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

The next morning found Rory wrapped in Jess's arms. She wished he had gotten up early again, because she wasn't sure how to react to this situation. Somewhere far in the back of her head, a voice was telling her to get up, to ignore how good this boy's embrace feels, reminding her that she had a Dean, a Jess was not needed. To make this point even more clear, her left arm was squished under Jess's torso, causing her pendent to dig painfully into her skin.

Yet she didn't move. That reprimanding voice was strangely easy to ignore, and she found herself blissfully tuning it out. She couldn't help but push thoughts of Dean from her mind. Looking at Jess's sleeping form, he felt more real to her in this early morning hour than her boyfriend, who at that moment felt like an old memory, someone fading from her life more and more with every passing day. She couldn't explain her emotions, and decided it was too early to contemplate such serious matters. Instead, she gazed at Jess's face, thinking about last night. They had almost kissed. She didn't know what to make of this. What would happen when he woke up to find Rory's face three inches away from his?

She didn't have to wait long to find out. About five minutes later Jess's eyes fluttered open. Rory quickly squeezed hers shut, pretending to still be asleep for some reason unknown to her. She felt Jess's eyes on her and could tell he knew she was faking it, but she refused to open her eyes. She had thought he would let go of her immediately after waking up, but he didn't. They both lay there for a while, Jess gazing intently at Rory's falsely sleeping face. Finally realizing what he was waiting for, Rory slowly opened her eyes. She saw that Jess had an amused smirk on his face and frowned.

"What?" she asked. He gave his head a slight shake.

"Nothing."

Rory proceeded to pout, but Jess wasn't giving in.

"Tell Me," Rory whined, inadvertently pushing herself closer to Jess on the bed. He just shook his head again, but the smirk disappeared from his face. Before Rory knew what was happening, Jess pulled her even closer to him, until their foreheads were touching. The small bit of sense in her found its voice again, and it was screaming, but she was too lost in his eyes to put up much of a fight.

"Jess…"

He merely blinked in response. Rory saw him tilt his head up ever so slightly before she closed her eyes. She felt his lips brush lightly against hers. All her reservations disappeared, and just as she was about to respond, someone banged loudly on the door, causing the pair to jump and pull apart.

"Jess! Heather found Jaide."

It took them both a moment to comprehend what Boone had said. Rory watched the emotions on Jess's face change, going from sleepy dazedness to _what the fuck did I just do? _to frustration to relief and finally settling on a blank expression. All in a three second period. Rory herself imagined her face looking much like a deer caught in headlights in that moment. Then Jess jumped out of bed and before she knew it he was out the door. She lay there for a few minutes completely still, staring at the closed bedroom door. Eventually her eyes fell on her bracelet and she began to cry.

"Rory?"

Lorelai's voice was filled with panic. Clearly their conversation the other night didn't put her worries to rest like Rory had hoped.

"Mom."

"Rory, thank God. I didn't hear from you yesterday. Why didn't I hear from you yesterday? If you have to be off on this insanity trip to 'keep you safe'". she soaked those last words in sarcasm, " you need to contact me at least three times a day. That is the condition of me not getting the police in here and tracking these phone calls. Do you understand me?"

Rory almost smiled. She missed her mom so much it was killing her.

"Mom, I need to talk to you."

"Oh, God, what happened? Are you hurt? I'm coming to get you. Tell me where you are, I'm getting in the car now."

Rory heard Lorelai's car keys jingle as she picked them up. She actually hadn't given her current life or death predicament any thought all morning, and found herself surprisingly unconcerned about the whole thing. Her boy drama completely overpowered the whole she-might-be-a-witch-and-theres-an-army-of-vampires-that-are-trying-to-kill-her thing. She pushed away the thought that this made her incredibly shallow and contemplated how to begin this conversation with her best friend.

"Rory?" She heard the front door slam on the other end.

"I cheated on Dean."

That was not the intro she had anticipated coming out of her mouth, but it was the truth. Just barely, but it was, and she needed to talk about what the hell was going on in her head.

Lorelai was silent for a few seconds, but Rory could tell that her words had stopped her in her tracks.

"Rory, honey, please tell mommy you didn't have sex with the rude hoodlum who kidnapped you. That is not the way I envisioned your first time. Mostly because your first time is supposed to be in a nursing home."

Rory rolled her eyes. "First of all, ew, old people sex. Second of all, Jess isn't a hoodlum and he didn't kidnap me. He's the only reason I'm still alive."

"I don't know what I'm more concerned about, you having sex with Luke's nephew or the fact that you're in a situation where death is a serious possibility."

"I would think you'd be more concerned about my possible death than you would be about the loss of my virginity. Priorities mom. Contrary to what the gym coach on _Mean Girls_ preaches, sex does not lead to death."

"For the love of God, Rory, answer the damn question. Are you having sex with Jess?"

Rory sighed. "No." She heard Lorelai let out a breath.

"Well, then, okay." Pause. "Now tell me where you are."

"I can't, mom, and I really don't want to waste time having you try to persuade me into telling you. I really need to talk about Dean."

"Fine, just know that I'm glaring at you and am not in the slightest bit happy with any of this. Now tell me what happened."

Rory opened and shut her mouth 3 times without making a single sound. She had no words. She had called her mother wanting to explain what had happened and what she was feeling, and to beg for her input, but she realized that she didn't even know how to vocalize any of it. Rory Gilmore, aspiring journalist, had gone internally and externally mute.

"I…"

"You…?"

Rory sighed. "I don't know."

"Anything?" Lorelai mocked.

"I'm beginning to think that's the case," Rory said grumpily.

"Whoa, okay, things just got deep. You are aware that it is only eight-thirty in the morning, right?" Lorelai's tone had lost most of its panic, to Rory's relief.

"No, I didn't actually, but I can add why I'm up this early to the ever-growing list of things I don't know. Why are you up this early?"

"Oh, I don't know," Lorelai said sarcastically, "maybe because I have a daughter off God knows where in life threatening danger and I'm not allowed to see her or apparently even talk to her daily, as proven by my lack of a phone call yesterday. I've been sitting by the phone all night."

Rory buried her head in her free hand. She wanted to cry. _No_, she thought as she felt the familiar sting behind her eyes,_ not twice in one morning_.

"I'm so sorry, mom. I really am. This whole situation sucks and I wish I had something reassuring to say, but I don't. I don't know what's going on, I don't know when I'll be able to come home, I don't know anything about anything. Not the world, not life, not even myself. Everything is just so… ugh!" She let out a loud, exasperated groan. She was feeling intensely grumpy and confused and something she had never felt before: stupid. She did not enjoy the feeling.

"Okay hon, just breathe. Everything will be okay. I promise. I know you and you will make it through this. You're strong. You're going to make it through this. You have to."

She tried to soak in her mother's pep talk but her life had spiraled so far out of control in such a short time that she couldn't wrap her mind around the concept of everything being alright. And the saddest part of it all was that her mind's main focus was still on her boy problems.

"I cheated on Dean," she said again, if for nothing else than to prove to her mother that she didn't know her as well as she thought she did.

"Right, yes, I heard. Explain." She was using Rory's boy dilemma to distract them both from the real seriousness of the situation, and Rory knew it.

"I don't know what to say. Jess… he lip grazed me. Jess lip grazed me." Those words sounded stupid out loud, Rory knew. Lorelai's response made it clear that she thought so too.

"_That's_ it? A lip graze? Rory, my sweet, naïve offspring, a lip graze is not even worth dwelling over. Grazes are nothing. Especially if he's the one that did it. You have nothing to feel guilty about."

But she did. She knew she did. And it finally occurred to her how to vocalize why.

"I emotionally cheated on Dean." She could tell by her mother's silence that she didn't think it was stupid anymore. She shook her head and amended her statement. "I _am_ emotionally cheating on Dean." Lorelai remained silent. "Mom, say something." Rory's voice was desperate for a reaction, any reaction. She wanted her mother to offer up some kind of reasoning, to tell her why this was happening. And she kind of wanted her to yell at her. When Lorelai finally spoke, however, all she said was "Aw, kid."

Rory found herself wandering into the chapel again. She needed to think and it seemed like a good place to do it. Her mother hadn't made her feel any better about the Dean/Jess situation. In fact, she had made her feel worse. Apparently Dean had been calling twenty-five times a day and dropping by at least seven. The official story Lorelai had spread around was that she and Rory had an extremely severe case of the flu and the doctor ordered them to remain on bed rest for as long as was needed, with minimal visitors. Rory was confused as to why her mother was feigning ill as well, but she had told her that she certainly wasn't going to leave the house and miss any of Rory's calls, especially since they were "so few and far between each other). She wasn't letting the fact that Rory hadn't called her the day before go anytime soon.

Whenever Dean called, Lorelai would tell him that Rory was sleeping or catching up on schoolwork she was missing. When he came to the door she ignored him, until he would call ten minutes later when she would tell him that they _both_ must have been sleeping. "Sleep, of course, was the cure for any illness", she would say. Many called and came by, but the only person allowed inside was Luke. The reason Lorelai had supplied for this was that he had been the one to take her and her daughter to the hospital when they first got sick (the night Rory and Jess left), and therefore may already be infected with their flu. It was a pretty well thought out lie, Rory had to admit. The only problem she could detect was that it was impractical for Lorelai to miss so much work. How was she going to survive if she didn't go to work to make money? Her mother hushed these concerns when Rory had voiced them.

The big problem was Rory's grandparents. Emily had been insistent in coming over to take care of the two women and when Lorelai finally convinced her not to she said she was sending over a house nurse. That had been yesterday. The nurse was set to come that day and Lorelai still wasn't quite sure how she was going to handle that situation. Rory hated that she was the cause of this insanity. She was sitting in one of the pews reflecting on the shit show that currently was her life and trying to decide what to do about Jess and Dean (since it was clearly the easiest thing to deal with in her messed up life at the moment and since her mother was no hope at all) when she heard someone open the chapel door. She spun around to find Simon walking towards her. Panic and fear quickly overcame her, though she tried to suppress them. Jess said he was harmless. She should believe him.

"Hey," he said when he got close enough. He sat down in the pew opposite hers, and she felt as though he could sense her fear and was keeping his distance. She appreciated this and began to relax a little.

"Hi."

"Almost everyone's out getting Jaide."

She didn't realize until he said this that no one was there. She had been too absorbed in herself to notice.

"Not you?" she asked, looking up at him.

He shrugged. "Daylight," he said simply.

"Oh." They sat in silence for a few minutes. Then something occurred to Rory. "You were out yesterday to see that Kane guy, weren't you?"

Simon raised an eyebrow. "Yes."

"You didn't crumble into a pile of ash then."

"No."

She didn't know why he was intentionally trying to annoy her, but it was definitely working.

"_How?_" She was giving him attitude and she didn't care. She was not in a good mood.

He smirked, annoying her even more. "The sewers are my best friend." Rory wrinkled her nose in disgust, making him chuckle. "It's not so bad. Demon hunting in general requires a lot of travel by sewer, so I usually always have company."

"You're not very good at selling the whole demon hunting lifestyle," she pointed out. He shrugged.

"Didn't know that's what I was doing. Do you want to take part in the demon hunting lifestyle?"

That was a question she hadn't given much thought to. She was surprised to find that her mind wasn't automatically screaming "no" at her. Was this something she'd want to do after she got out of the mess she was in? Would she be able to go on with her life not being involved in this stuff after everything she's experienced and seen? She gave him what seemed like her default answer for everything anymore.

'I don't know." Not wanting to talk about anything having to do with her life, she changed the subject, blurting out the first thing that popped into her head. "What do you eat?"

Simon chuckled again. "Food."

"Stop being evasive. What kind of food? French fries and milkshakes or warm bodies full of blood pumping away in veins?" She was only slightly aware that she was being rude. Simon didn't seem to mind much. His expression was one of amusement.

"Now you're just making me hungry."

Rory's eyes widened. "Hungry for which?!"

He was outright laughing now. "Relax. I don't eat people."

Rory's heart beat slowly began to slow back down to a normal speed. "No blood ever?" she asked to reassure herself. He stopped laughing. She didn't like that.

"Sometimes. Never from the body, though." He could tell that this did not appease her. "You don't have to be scared of me, you know. Jess wouldn't have left you alone with me if he thought I was going to go bite happy on your neck."

He had a point. She sighed. "I'm sorry. I'm just… I'm still adjusting to this whole situation." He nodded. She thought maybe he understood how scary everything was to her, not just him. "Can I ask you something?"

He looked at her intently. "Is it something along the lines of how is it possible for one to be born a vampire?"

"Maybe…" she said, and then sheepishly added "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I was just curious."

Simon shook his head. "You're curiosity isn't unfounded. It's really not that interesting of a story. My mom had sex with a vampire, and nine months later she had herself a little demon baby."

He said it so nonchalantly. Rory wasn't convinced that that was all there was to it.

"Where's your mom now?" she asked.

"In the city."

"And your dad?"

"Dusted." He said, still with an air of nonchalance.

"Oh. I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"

Simon shook his head. "It's fine, I never even met him."

Rory wanted to know more. She was just about to ask him another question when suddenly they heard loud shrieking coming from somewhere down the hall. They both got up and ran to investigate.

"Let go of me!"

Everyone but Jill was back, all clustered in the foyer. As Rory and Simon got closer they say that Jess and Mac were wrestlng with Jaide, trying to get her to stay still. Rory was confused. Why was Jaide fighting them? What was wrong with her? She was acting as though she were-

Rory gasped. Jaide's eyes had landed on her, only they didn't look like her eyes. They were green and glowing. Possessed. She was acting and looking like she was possessed.

"YOU!" she shrieked at Rory. "YOU IDIOT GIRL. STUPID, WRETCHED WITCH. DEATH! SLOW AND PAINFUL, I'LL KILL YOU BEFORE YOU CAN CAUSE ANY MORE DAMAGE, YOU ABOMINABLE B-"

Jess's fist had collided hard with the side of Jaide's face and she collapsed to the ground, seemingly unconscious. No one said anything after that. They all just stood around Jaide, wondering what the hell they were going to do with her.

**A/N**- Well, here's a treat for everybody after five years. I don't know what made me decide to go back to writing this after so long, but I did. Maybe I'm just determined to finish it. I don't even know the last time I wrote anything for this website, but I promise that I will finish this story. And an even better promise, I promise I won't let another five years go by before I give you the next chapter. I apologize for abandoning this, it just kind of happened. So here's hoping that there's at least one person still on this siite who read this story back in the day and will be happy to find it finally updated.


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